USA > Texas > Cherokee County > A history of Cherokee county (Texas) > Part 5
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
Census figures for 1850 show the population was 6,673, includ- ing 1,283 slaves. Of this total only twenty-four persons were for- eign-born. By 1860 the county's inhabitants had almost doubled. The majority of the earliest immigrants were small farmers, either entirely without slaves or owning only a few with whom they worked in the fields. Of the later pioneers, however, a large per cent were extensive slaveholders, who had money with which to build substantial houses and finance their farming operations. Despite the terrible droughts in the '50s, it was a decade of prosperity.
According to the 1850 census, 454 farms, containing 19,133 acres of Cherokee land, has been improved. The Bureau of Busi- ness Research reported 6,800 farms in 1930. James Cook, a planter at Cook's Fort, owned the largest farm, 300 acres. Only eight other men could boast of more than 200 acres of improved land. The average farm was limited to forty-two acres.
Investigation of crop reports shows King Cotton had not yet come into power. The average production of corn on the 454 farms was 500 bushels. Wheat was grown in abundance and converted into excellent flour, oxen turning the mill wheels. Three grades of flour were ground-white flour, middlings and shorts. If the white flour gave out before the next crop, the family used middlings and even shorts. In 1863 a bumper wheat crop resulted in paying tithes to the Confederacy in wheat. Doctor J. M. Noell of Alto reported a yield of 31¿ bushels per acre.
Strange as it may seem to the 20th century Cherokee farmer, many of his predecessors in 1850 with large families made only one or two bales of cotton. Their total crop was only 1,083 bales, as compared with 36,951 bales in 1928.
Poor roads and slow travel made gins much closer together than they are today. Rusk and Larissa both advertised gin fac- tories. It should be noted, however, that gin machinery of that day was largely made of wood, entailing none of the complicated processes of modern gin manufacture.
The autoist of today, the shipper who at will imports or exports his goods, by rail or truck, can scarcely imagine early trade handi- caps. Shreveport, Louisiana, was the principal market. The dis- tance, however, precluded frequent trips in ox-drawn wagons,4 the chief vehicle of the day. No farmer could carry his cotton, wool and hides more than twice a year "over the wearisome one hundred and thirty or more miles, through mud and sand, over
4Axles for the pioneer's wagon were often hewed out of trees and greased with tar. A tar bucket was always a part of the driver's equipment.
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ORGANIZATION and EARLY DEVELOPMENT
ungraded hills, across treacherous fords and rickety ferries."5 Not even the much desired sugar and coffee could make up for greater loss of time.
Had her efforts to navigate her bordering rivers met with suc- cess, Cherokee County's marketing problems would have been largely solved. Old-timers still point out Green's Ruin on the Neches, where in ante-bellum days a certain Green watched his flatboat sink. The Texas Enquirer, January 7, 1860, reported the completion of a flatboat with 150-bale capacity at the San Antonio road crossing on the Neches, observing that cotton could now be sent to Galveston for $5 and to New Orleans for $6 per bale via the Neches, less than the cost of taking it to Shreveport. Although the paper stated that the Neches was navigable to this point six months in the year, the venture was unsuccessful. During the Civil War, Captain C. C. Bell started from Linwood with a flatboat loaded with cotton. Boat and cargo sank. Attempts at Angelina navigation were abandoned.
The establishment of a shipping center at Magnolia, Anderson County, proved the greatest boom to Cherokee planters. Despite irregular boat schedules, the reduced freight rates resulted in increased cotton production. Much Cherokee cotton was marketed via the Trinity.
Many citizens found profitable employment as freighters. An old receipt shows Randall Odom was paid ninety dollars for two trips to Shreveport.
5Posey, J. B .: History of Cherokee County, p. 51.
CHAPTER IV
EARLY DEVELOPMENT (Continued ) SCHOOLS
CHEROKEE pioneers were, for the most part, cultured people who had no intention of allowing their removal to a frontier country to prevent their children from receiving the benefits of an education. Proof of their interest lies in the fact that in 1850 Cherokee County ranked first in the state in the number of chil- dren who had attended school. In 1854 she again headed the list, reporting 2,400 scholastics.
In some cases tutors were brought with the family from the old states, but the majority of children attended community schools. Free schools being as yet non-existent, parents gladly paid tuition. Sometimes this was reduced if several came from the same family. When a patron was short of money tuition bills were often paid in produce, even cows and quilts being accepted on such accounts. Fortunately for the teachers, small salaries were accompanied by small expenses, so a year's savings were not insignificant. The late J. H. Bonner reported clearing two hundred dollars on a term taught in the Sardis community, when pupils paid ten cents per day if they came, nothing if they did not.
As the population increased, log schoolhouses were replaced by frame buildings, usually erected by some lodge or church which permitted their use for school purposes.
Despite the absence of certificate laws and state requirements, the majority of early Cherokee teachers were well-qualified. Many of them were outstanding educators.
The legislative act of 1854, which authorized the creation of county school districts and the use of state school funds in pay- ment of teachers' salaries in districts where substantial school buildings had been locally provided, marks a new era in Chero- kee's educational progress. In accordance with this law the com- missioners court laid out forty-four districts and ordered the election of school trustees. Although designated as "free public schools," a district's quota of the public funds was usually inade- quate and the patrons of the school had to pro rate the balance.
In 1858 George W. McKnight, F. C. Williams and W. K. Mar-
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EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (CONTINUED)
shall were appointed as a Cherokee County board of school examiners and a "certificate of qualification" became a prerequisite to drawing public school money. Somewhat of a blow to the dignity of university graduates !
Such were the initial steps in the building of Cherokee County's modern public school system. The next great advance came in the '70s and will be recorded in a later chapter.
Poor means of transportation promoted the early establishment of boarding schools. Students within the proverbial stone's throw, as modern mileage goes, often boarded from Monday to Friday.
In March, 1848, Joseph L. Hogg, L. H. Dillard, T. J. Moore, B. B. Cannon, J. H. Parsons, J. T. Henry and E. L. Givens secured a charter for Cherokee Academy to be located on Block No. 6, the site reserved for school purposes by the commission appointed to locate the county seat. J. B. Mitchell then had a school on the site and doubtless became a teacher in the new academy. Although the corporation was to "exist as long as it used the benefits derived for the advancement of science and the pro- motion of useful knowledge among the rising generation," no research has revealed any authentic trace of the academy beyond deed references to its being in existence in 1851. It may have merged with the Stephens and Carter Academy established in 1851.
In 1869 the commissioners court sold the site and invested the money in Rusk Educational Association stock. When the associa- tion's plans for building a school failed to materialize, the county, together with other stockholders, conveyed its holdings to Euclid Lodge No. 45 and Cherokee Chapter No. 11, Royal Arch Masons, who built the Rusk Masonic Institute.
Many of the present generation, familiar only with the Baptist Rusk College, will be surprised to learn that "College Hill" once lay north of Rusk, the name having been used originally in referring to the Guinn hill where, on a site donated by General Joseph L. Hogg, Moses W. McKnight, a Tennesseean in Texas for his health, erected five two-room frame buildings in 1855 and opened a school, afterward called Hale Institute. Since all avail- able records prior to 1859 refer to it merely as the College Hill school, it is not known whether the name was used in the beginning.
When the anticipated donations with which he had expected to continue his building program failed to materialize, General Hogg released McKnight from his "contract to perpetuate a col- lege." Continued ill health necessitated McKnight's abandonment
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
of school work some months prior to his death on New Year's Day, 1858. No school record for this year is available. An adver- tisement in 1859 shows Milton P. Tucker, a Georgian of wide experience, opening Hale Institute. Although the Rusk newspaper editorially visioned the speedy erection of "a college edifice suffi- ciently commodious and elegantly ornamental," the Civil War found the plant still limited to the five little houses built with McKnight's private funds. Professor Tucker enlisted in the army and the Institute was closed forever. During the war a Mrs. Thompson taught a private school in one of the buildings. Later they were torn down. Among those known to have attended Hale Institute were Thomas E. and John W. Hogg, James, Pope and Charles Raines, H. W. Carter and John B. Long. The only other faculty member whose name has been found was Samuel Mitchell, geology teacher.
The real center of higher education in Cherokee's ante- bellum days, however, was Larissa College, the mother of Trinity University.
About 1848, through the efforts of Reverend T. N. McKee and Mrs. S. R. Erwin, two Cherokee settlers from Lebanon, Tennessee, a school was opened in a little log cabin near Larissa under the management of the Trinity Presbytery of the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church, with Mrs. Erwin as the first teacher. So rapid was its growth that, in February, 1856, largely through the initiative of Thomas H. McKee and Nathaniel Kil- lough, it was chartered as a college under the direction of the Brazos Synod. After three men had served short terms, Doctor F. L. Yoakum, brother of the historian, was elected president.1
Although a co-educational institution, a hill separated the male and the female departments. A large, two-story frame building and several two-room dormitories for men were erected on "a commanding elevation in the pleasant little village of Larissa." The girls' dormitory was at the foot of the hill, while classes for the female department were held in the Presbyterian Church. Chemistry was the only subject in which both boys and girls were enrolled in the same class. Despite eighty years, the girls who are left still feel a flare of resentment at the way these masculine highbrows would strut by their windows with books stacked high, "just trying to make us think they were more learned."
The catalogue of 1859-60 offered courses in Latin, Greek,
1Doctor Yoakum, a native of Tennessee, had been a Limestone County physi- cian and a teacher in Tehuacana College.
TT
Larissa College THE J. P. GIBSON HOME-(Rusk)
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EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (CONTINUED)
French, Spanish, natural philosophy, chemistry, physics, geology, mineralogy, astronomy, botany, animal physiology, moral science, mental science, rhetoric, logic and mathematics. Special atten- tion was called to its physics and chemistry laboratory equipment, its microscopes, its herbarium and its powerful telescope, more than three times stronger than the Yale telescope. Tuition ranged from $10 to $20 per session of five months. In addition to dormi- tory accommodations, board was advertised in private families at from $8 to $10 per month, "washing included."
The catalogue further stated the "Ninth Chapter of the Laws of the College, defining moral conduct and misdemeanors, is placed in the hands of each student on entrance and is rigidly enforced ; but obedience is secured as much as possible by moral suasion."
The three faculty members best remembered by alumni are Doctor F. L. Yoakum, professor of ancient languages as well as president; Reverend D. S. Crawford, principal of the female department, "who didn't want a boy to look at a girl"; and Miss E. L. Joiner, a Vermonter educated in Canada, who taught Larissa co-eds voice, piano, art, Latin and French. According to an editorial, written after the editor of the Rusk Enquirer had attended the publicly conducted examinations which were a part of the commencement exercises and listened to the "effusions of the young ladies," these co-eds "evinced superiority in mental culture." Among other faculty members were Reverend E. Can- ady, H. I. Willson, Miss Mattie Early, Miss Mary Dixon and Reverend John B. Renfro.
The session of 1859-60, with one hundred and twenty-five students enrolled, marks the turning point in the history of the institution. The Civil War suspended classes. Soon after the war work was resumed but, for reasons never made clear to the pub- lic, the Brazos Synod abruptly severed relations with Larissa. Three years later, in 1869, the Presbyterians established a new institution, Trinity University at Tehuacana. The college build- ing at Larissa was afterward used for a public school.
Although the tangible assets, including the telescope, moved from Larissa were relatively insignificant, the university inherited an invaluable asset in the Larissa spirit and traditions.
CHURCHES
Churches also antedate the county organization. In 1844 the Mt. Olive Baptist Church was organized.2 Although its exact loca-
2Minutes Sabine County Baptist Association, 1846 and 1849.
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
tion is not known, it was apparently near the old San Antonio road, west of the Angelina River. Probably as early as 1845 and certainly not later than 1847 a group of settlers met at the home of B. F. Selman and organized another church, called Palestine for a Mississippi church to which some of the members had belonged. Disguised by a weatherboard covering, the house still stands almost in front of the Linwood stores on the King's High- way. The last of its charter members, Mrs. B. F. Selman (nee Elizabeth Roark) died in 1910. Four years after its organization the Palestine church, then having only sixteen members, dissolved and united with the Mt. Olive church. Just when and why the name Palestine was again assumed has not been ascertained. The church still exists, the present building being located on the King's Highway, four miles east of Alto, but is called Old Palestine to distinguish it from the Anderson county seat.
The Rocky Springs Baptist Church, one and one-half miles west of Dialville, has passed its eighty-sixth birthday. The Mt. Zion and Shiloh Methodist churches, near Alto, the Myrtle Springs Baptist Church, afterward moved to Ponta, the Rusk and Jack- sonville Methodist churches and the Rusk Presbyterian Church existed prior to 1850, the Shiloh church doubtless being the oldest of the group. The Pine Springs Baptist Church existed at least as early as 1853. The Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, two miles west of Maydelle, has its minutes from the date of organization, September 16, 1854. No doubt others whose records are unavail- able are just as old. A number of other churches boast of eighty years' existence.
But many pioneer churches have fallen victim to the ebb and flow of the industrial tide. Once centers of prosperous com- munities, their sites are now desolate, the near-by stones marking the last resting place of former members, the only proof of their having existed. Prominent on the roster of these ghost churches are Mt. Comfort near Maydelle, Social Chapel in the Holcomb settlement on Box's Creek, Liberty near the Pure Oil Pump Station, Mt. Olivant at old Knoxville and the oldest of the group at Keyes Creek.
These little graveyards, now tucked away in off-the-road places, are rarely found in weed-grown wastes. Unique perhaps in East Texas are the graveyard workings held once a year when the flowers bloom most riotously. Then relatives and friends gather on an appointed day to rake and weed and hoe their plots and pay tribute to the dead.
In many cases the early deeds which record donations of church
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EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (CONTINUED)
sites specify that the church building be also used for a neighbor- hood school. For example, John Slaton for one dollar paid by Sam Nelson, William Hammett and William Matthews, trustees for the M. E. Church, South, sold one acre "for church and educational purposes to be free to all orthodox Christians to preach in and to the neighborhood for a schoolhouse and edu- cational purposes all the time they wish to use it."
Pioneer deacons and elders were stern disciplinarians who tol- erated no trifling with church rules. Preferring charges against erring members was a frequent item of business recorded in church minutes. In some cases a confession of fault and a promise of refraining from further offense brought forgiveness. In others, the offender was publicly expelled from the congregation.
The annual camp meeting was a red-letter event on the religious calendar. After crops were laid by, pioneer kitchens witnessed an orgy of cooking, prelude to the entire family's going to meeting.
On the appointed day heavily loaded wagons from every direc- tion creaked into the camping ground. Amidst eager interchange of friendly greetings and help, a canvas village swiftly sprang to life. Even while housekeeping arrangements held older folk apart for a few hours, knots of younger folk were happily flit- ting from tent to tent, exchanging confidences, sharing experi- ences since last they met. Dusk came. The grounds were bright with torches of blazing pine, securely fastened in dirt-floored scaffolds. The blast of a horn, signal for evening service, hushed the babble of voices.
Swiftly, from every nook and corner, young and old converged upon the center of the camp-the brush arbor. A leader "set the music," doubtless "Brethren, We Have Come to Worship," and the majestic notes of the old tune filled the countryside. Next came a call to prayer.
Quoting Reverend D. D. Shattuck, a veteran camper, "The leader soared aloft, talked right into the face of God, while 'Amens' sounded all over the kneeling congregation. All this put the preacher in excellent fix for his sermon. He couldn't help preaching. After the sermon people were invited to the 'Anxious Seat.' When the altar filled, the right person was called on to pray, one who knew how to really talk to God. Before the prayer was over, shouting almost rent the arbor."
Although primarily a religious gathering, the summer camp meeting was also an eagerly anticipated social event. "Go to my tent for dinner. ... Come with me for supper." Never was there a lack of invitation. For the young visitors from tent to tent the
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
hours between services were often all too short. Many a happy courtship progressed swiftly on camp-meeting grounds.
As the years passed, the various denominations formed the habit of holding their own evangelistic campaigns in their own churches and the pioneer camp meeting lost favor.
Among the prominent pioneer ministers serving these rural churches were George W. Slover, Samuel C. Box, John A. Box, J. B. Harris, Preston B. Hobbs, D. M. Stovall, S. K. Stovall, John B. Renfro, T. N. McKee and J. A. Kimball.
NEWSPAPERS
Realizing that without newspapers progress is inevitably re- tarded, Cherokee pioneers soon added this educational advantage. For almost three decades, however, the county seat had the only printing press.
The Rusk Pioneer, first published on the north side of the courthouse square (Lot 9) in June, 1847, by Joseph A. Clark, former owner of the San Augustine Redlander, and W. R. Culp, was the county's first newspaper. The subscription was five dollars per year, with two dollars reduction for payment in advance. The following extract from the issue of August 8, 1849, proves Editor Clark a booster :
"A heavy emigration is expected to this state during the ap- proaching fall and winter. We hear of many who design coming to our own county. This will be a favorable year to come to Cherokee. Abundant crops of corn have been made this season and it will be sold cheap. ... Those who want to enjoy the advan- tages of a new country and fresh soil and at the same time have the advantages of good schools, good society and many other privileges and enjoyments rarely to be found elsewhere than in an old country, will do well to come to Cherokee County. The health of this part of Texas is not surpassed by any place in the South. The lands will class with the richest uplands of the state and the water is excellent."
This first newspaper venture was evidently not a financial suc- cess, the Pioneer becoming the home of the Cherokee Sentinel in February, 1850. In December, William Hicks, owner of the Sentinel, conveyed half interest in its press to his sister, Jane Jackson. Thus Andrew Jackson, Jane's husband, colorful figure in the town's history, began his long newspaper career in Rusk. The Sentinel was subsequently owned by Jackson & Lang, Jack- son, Wiggins & Company and Noland & Reagan.
In April, 1855, Colonel W. T. Yeomans established a rival
ANDREW JACKSON
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EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (CONTINUED)
paper, the Texas Enquirer, "devoted to political economy, litera- ture, the development of our state's resources, home industry, and the policy of the South." Politically the new paper was a Know Nothing organ. From 1858 to 1861 Colonel Yeomans and Andrew Jackson also printed the Texas Freemason, "a large and hand- some sheet of eight pages," published monthly by the Texas Masons.
When the Civil War cut off the regular channels of paper supply, Rusk newspaper service was discontinued until the Texas Observer made its appearance in 1865, with H. S. Newland and Jack Davis as owners and Andrew Jackson as publisher.3 Its slogan was, "The World Is Governed Too Much."
The Cherokee Advertiser, a Republican paper, was published by J. C. Anderson in 1870. Through its purchase by Thomas E. Hogg and Frank Templeton it was soon changed to a Democratic organ, which in 1877 was published by McLeroy and McEachern. For a short time the Texas Intelligencer was also a Rusk paper, published by J. K. Street. After the birth of the present Jackson- ville, it was sold to A. R. McCallum and J. H. Mason, who moved it to Jacksonville. Later newspaper history will be found in the chapters on the towns.
The following glimpses of 1859-60 issues of the Texas Enquirer affords a cross-section of Cherokee life :
"U. S. Mail Line from Shreveport to Crockett in three days! Bradfield's line of 4-horse Post Coaches runs regularly three times per week from Shreveport via Marshall, Henderson and Rusk to Crockett, making connection at both ends. His stages and horses are the best that can be procured, his drivers sober and accommo- dating. Travelers from the old states can take this line at Shreve- port and pass through the rich counties of Harrison, Rusk and Cherokee to Crockett where they will find conveyance to any part of West Texas. Merchants visiting New Orleans will find this line cheaper."
Cumberland Presbyterian Church services were held each Sab- bath at candle lighting.
The Cherokee Hotel had rooms "fitted up with a view to con- venience and comfort, several of them especially appropriate to the use of families." Its large, well-arranged stables had competent hostlers in attendance. Cane and fodder were kept for sale at reasonable terms. Accommodations could be had at the following rates : man and horse per night $1.50, per day $2; stage pas-
3The Observer office was on the south side of the courthouse square, in the upper story of the building on Lot 1.
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
sengers per meal 50 cents; board per week $5. Travellers might secure the use of its "fine two-horse carriage and fine buggy."
Advertising by local merchants contained such pointed state- ments as, "Credit is played out. Save your feelings and don't ask for it." One druggist was "determined to astonish the cash-paying natives with the greatest reduction in prices ever known in Texas." The publisher was notifying patrons that no more work would be done without advance payment.
Slaves sold at auction, January, 1860, brought the following prices : a 18-year-old boy, $2,006; a 15-year-old girl, $1,555; a 53-year-old man, $921. Persons who hired slaves paid from $225 to $255 per year for common field hands and $170 per year for women in addition to furnishing their food and clothing. White men in anti-slave states rarely got more than eight dollars per month and furnished themselves.
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